Henry Thomas & Drew Barrymore – “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial” (1982)
Over the years, Spielberg’s gained a reputation as one of the best directors of child actors, a reputation that in large part derives from his work on one of his very finest films, “E.T.” Showing a nous for casting that would lead to thirty-year careers in the business for the young stars, the director cast ten-year-old Henry Thomas as lead Elliot, and five-year-old Drew Barrymore as his little sister Gertie, and both gave turns that would put actors many times their age to shame. Never once committing the kind of precociousness or preciousness that so many child actors do, the duo (and most of their young co-stars) are truthful, charming, entirely moving, and most importantly, do so much to sell the reality of the alien the movie revolves around. They believe, which means that you do too.
Whoopi Goldberg – “The Color Purple” (1985)
As his attempt to be taken more seriously as a filmmaker, “The Color Purple,” his adaptation of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer-winning novel, had mixed success — mostly good reviews and a ton of Oscar nominations, but ultimately the film exited that year’s ceremony without picking up any trophies. Today, it stands as a flawed but powerful picture with an absolutely stunning ensemble, with none more impressive than the film’s lead, Whoopi Goldberg. Picked out by the director after her one-woman, Mike Nichols-directed show proved a hit on Broadway, Goldberg plays Celie, a young woman leaving an often unbearably tough life in the South, but who finally learns to stand up to her brute of a husband (Danny Glover, also excellent). The film had a tough job with a heroine who’s often passive, but Goldberg’s performance lets us inside Celie’s head and makes us care for her desperately and deeply. It’s extraordinary, particularly given that she was all but a total newcomer to movies at the time.
Margaret Avery & Oprah Winfrey – “The Color Purple” (1985)
Everyone is terrific in “The Color Purple,” but we’d be remiss in not shining a light on the film’s two Oscar-nominated supporting players, Margaret Avery and Oprah Winfrey. Avery wan’t always well known before or since, but she kills as Shug, the honey-voiced ex-love of Danny Glover’s Mister (even if the film sells her short by mostly dancing around her affair with Celine), at once thoroughly sultry and utterly tired. Meanwhile, Winfrey (who was only just beginning her talk-show career at the time) is the film’s face of defiance and then heartbreaking defeat as Sofia, who lends Celie strength only to find that the system won’t have any of it. Both were beaten to the Oscar by Angelica Huston in “Prizzi’s Honor,” perhaps because it was so difficult to choose between them, but we’re grateful that they were given such a showcase to begin with.
Christian Bale – “Empire Of The Sun” (1987)
Now we know him as Batman and an Oscar-winner, but back in 1987, a then 12-year-old Christian Bale proved once again Spielberg’s eye for a young actor with an astonishing performance, arguably the best child turn in the director’s films. Recommended to Spielberg by his then-wife Amy Irving, who’d starred with him in a TV movie, Bale plays Jim Graham, a surrogate for J.G. Ballard, the author of the original novel and a British schoolboy in Shanghai trying to survive in an internment camp during the Japanese occupation during the Second World War. He’s a picture of carefree childhood in the film’s early scenes as war closes in, but the actor expertly lets his wide eyes narrow over time, never entirely shaking off his privilege, but showing better than most the passage into manhood. It’s a valuable early glimpse into someone who’s grown up into one of our best actors.
